Last year, between the two of us, we watched an average of 317 movies.This year our goal is to top that by watching at least one a day.And as an extra special torture, we've decided to write about all of them.

11 June 2008

Step Up 2: The Streets, dir. Jon Chu (2008)

NIKKI says:They keep making them, I'll keep watching them. If there's one thing I'm addicted to more than crappy horror, it's teen dance flicks. And now that the '80s are in vogue again, there's a lot more body-popping and breakin' going on in these movies, and I just can't get enough of that.

This one was as inoffensive and standard as the first movie. In fact, it was very near a remake of its predecessor, only now it's a chick from the wrong side of the tracks who struggles to fit in with her fellow dance students at a big, special Maryland dance school.

Let's see: Andie is a member of the 410 gang that goes about dance-vandalising property. The crew is all about family and togetherness, yet when Andie gets this huge opportunity at the school, all her 410 crew members do is slam her for not being loyal to them. Them being loyal to and supportive of HER never comes into question. It just becomes a street dancers vs. school dancers thing, and you know how that's going to go.

Andie finds her own crew in the school, and starts to fit in with nice kids. So, it's all very cute and nice. It attempts edge through its crazy dancing, and a little street-fighting scene, it's costuming and it's "urban"-ness (the tagline, for instance). But it owes more to Kids, Inc. than Fame. There's no grit, and perhaps that's what I'm missing? These movie need a charge of some kind, to bring them into the real world. And the writers could perhaps try and find a way to tweak the subject matter -- like they did with Roll Bounce, which even Steve kinda enjoyed.

Still, I liked the music, the actors were good, and I'll watch groups of kids dance-fighting 'til the end of time.

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November Wrap-Up!

November was a weird month. Funny, too, how upon the closing of Horror Month (October), we began November with, well, about five horror movies. That shows just how addicted we are to anything remotely blood-spattered.

Looking over the month's movies, nothing there really impressed us all that much. We revisited a lot this month, and even some of the revisits left us cold. Steve had issues with his one-time beloved Fire Walk With Me, and I was shocked at the lack of emotion raised in me by my formerly uber-beloved Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Steve re-did The Shining and still didn't like it. And I watched Assassins in a lonely hotel room and forgot what it once was I liked about that one. Praise be, then, to The 40-Year-Old Virgin -- the one revisit this month that made us laugh just as much as the first time around.

So, a Top 10 list is hard for this month. But I think if I pick through the bones, I'll find some goodies:

Top 5 Good New Movies 1. Black Water2. The Signal3. Dead Set

Okay, so there were only THREE. Wow. And all horror movies, go figure. Well, let's shoot for a WORST list and see if we can crack five:

Top 5 Bad New Movies 1. Funny Games (worst movie of the year)2. They're Among Us (why why why did we do this?)3. Headspace (why why why did STEVE do this?)4. Redacted (DePalma fails)5. Step-Brothers (fucking hell)

Hmm, not all horror movies, at least, but definitely horrible. Here's to a much more interesting final month...